Sarah Palin: Obama’s Objective Ally

Last week, John McCain sent Barack Obama a message thanking him for his call for more civility during a ceremony honoring the victims of the Tucson shooting. One must hope that 44 sent him a message thanking him for having created Sarah Palin. George W. Bush’s successor could not have dreamed of having an opponent like the former Alaska governor. The most recent poll shows that 46 percent of Americans disapprove of Palin’s response to the Tucson shooting, which resulted in six dead and 18 injured, including Gabrielle Giffords, the district’s representative. At the same time, barely 12 percent in the same poll disapproved of 44’s behavior and remarks.

Sarah Palin is Barack Obama’s best ally. Now that Congress is back to work after the Christmas holiday, it is difficult to hear the voice of poor John Boehner. The voice of the leader of the Republicans in Congress is completely inaudible. Sarah Palin monopolizes the airwaves, even when she is not the topic. This Wednesday, for example, American newspapers spoke at length about the incident involving comedian Joan Rivers. She was uninvited by Fox News for having made a joke — quite innocently — concerning Palin. “I think she should go someplace,” joked Rivers, “to another planet.”

Sarah Palin and her black and white ideas — her extremist remarks that are rejected by a majority of Americans, even if they galvanize a small fringe of the electorate, as Ross Perot did in his time — seduced a portion of Americans before disappearing completely. Palin allows 44 to appear presidential, moderate and reasonable, whereas during the past two years his enemies made him out to be Stalin’s reincarnation, an extremist president who was going to turn the United States into a Khmer Rouge version of Cambodia.

That her rash statements considerably annoy Republicans makes absolutely no difference to the star of the reality television show on cable channel TLC. It’s been forgotten that she won her seat as Alaska’s governor by opposing Republicans and posing as an anti-establishment candidate. Each president needs an opponent who highlights his assets. For example, Ronald Reagan had Tip O’Neill, leader of the House of Representatives, who, with his cigar, was a caricature of a Boston politician. Bill Clinton had Newt Gingrich, pretentious and full of himself, in opposition to a relaxed president who loved people.

As long as Barack Obama has Sarah Palin — and one cannot see what will make her disappear from the political stage — he will have made a huge step toward a second term.